The Office Makes Catherine Tate A Series Regular For Season 9

It's amazing, the kind of things you can learn about a person from listening to their voicemails. Take Catherine Tate's character Nellie on The Office, for example. Up until the second-to-last episode ("Turf War") of Season 8, she seemed like a fairly annoying, random character who managed to nudge her way into a position she didn't really deserve. And then Pam stole her phone and we learned all sorts of things about her, like her debt problems and that she's trying (unsuccessfully) to adopt a child. Suddenly, this somewhat cartoonish character has depth. Sad depth, to be sure, but depth all the same. In thinking back to earlier seasons of the series, it's revelations like these that helped us see the better side to Michael Scott, so it seems fitting that the same, in its own way, works for Nellie.

TV Line is reporting that - though NBC has not confirmed this officially - their sources say Catherine Tate will be back on The Office as a series regular next season. When Season 8 ended, Nellie's fate seemed somewhat up in the air as Andy managed to turn the tables on her, enlisting now-millionaire David Wallace to buy out Dunder Mifflin and give him his old job back. The return of Wallace was fairly genius, especially when factoring in the ridiculous "Suck It" invention he'd come up with so many seasons ago. It seems Nellie will be sticking around the new Dunder Mifflin.

Before "Turf War," I probably wouldn't have considered this news to be a good thing, but having warmed to Nellie since the episode aired, I'll be curious to see how her character is further developed in Season 9. As TV Line notes, with the exception of Mindy Kaling, who's moving on from The Office, headed over to Fox for her new comedy The Mindy Project, all of the stars of The Office are set to return next season. There will also be some new characters brought on board for the show's "mini-reboot."